Work to build bright orange bridge over LA River set to start next year

A bright orange bridge across the Los Angeles River will start construction in April 2019, the city’s engineering bureau tells Curbed.

Officially called the Taylor Yard Bikeway and Pedestrian Bridge, the bridge will span 400 feet between Elysian Valley (aka Frogtown) and Cypress Park. It will allow bicyclists and pedestrians to travel between the existing path on the south side of the river and, on the north, to a small side street called Kerr Road.

An announcement from SPF:architects, which is designing the bridge, says the structure is intended to evoke “classic railway bridges and the mid-twentieth century Los Angeles Case Study Houses” with its geometric design. The architects seek to create the impression that the bridge “floats” over the river instead of just spanning it.

The bridge will connect to the southern part of Taylor Yard, a former train storage area along the LA River. A part of that yard, a roughly 40-acre section known as G2, was recently purchased by the city and will be converted into public green space.

In January, the city’s transportation committee approved a funding agreement with Metro, which will pay up to $21.7 million to finance the structure. (That amount includes the estimated construction cost of $19.2 million, plus $2.5 million for engineering and administrative costs, according to the department of public works.)

It will be one of a couple of bridges planned to cross the river in this area, including one that would link Glendale to Griffith Park and another that would connect the park to Atwater Village.

Some pre-construction work on the Taylor Yard bridge could be done this summer, but all the heavy lifting will have to wait until the annual seasonal work restrictions for the Los Angeles River are lifted in April, says engineering bureau spokesperson Mary Nemick.

Correction: Due to information provided by the architects, a previous version of this article incorrectly said that construction would begin on the bridge in July.

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• City recommends team to design LA River’s G2 parcel park [Curbed LA]